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Series Preview: Dodgers v. Cubs, August 1, 2013 – August 4, 2013

Yasiel Puig and the Yasiel Puig Yasiel Puigs make their way to Wrigley Field to play some other team. PUIG!

I kid, mostly. Puig is an interesting young player, and it’s pretty fair to want to see him in action at Wrigley.

By way of reminder, the Series Preview hooks you up with what you need to know about every series this year – streaks, broadcast information, pitchers, expected lineups, etc. That way, if you want to check only one place to get a sense about an upcoming series, or to plan ahead, you’ve got it. There’s also some fun stuff, because fun stuff is fun.

We’re Going Streaking

The Cubs went from sweeping the Giants in San Francisco to almost getting swept in four games at home by the Brewers. Last night’s win avoided that unsavory outcome.

The Dodgers started this year in a long, schadenfreude-y slump, but they’ve been as hot as any team over the last two months, and they lead the NL West by 2.5 games. They’ve won 10 of 12 since the All-Star break. I guess SIGN ALL THE PLAYERS works sometimes.

Game Times and Broadcasts

Thursday, August 1 at 7:05 CT on CSN.

Friday, August 2 at 3:05 CT on WGN.

Saturday, August 3 at 3:05 CT on FOX.

Sunday, August 4 at 1:20 CT on WGN.

Expected Starters and Lineups

These lineups are likely to be pretty close to what actually gets fielded, but you’ll want to check each day’s Pre-Gamin’ post for the actual lineup.

Hot or Not and Whom to Watch

The story line …

Junior Lake (and his overeager, reactionary fans) is being introduced to two harsh concepts: BABIP regression and the adjustments of Major League pitching. After his seven-game, career-beginning, hype-inducing hitting streak ended seven games ago, Lake has hit just .111/.143/.111 in his last seven games. What if those seven had been his first seven games, rather than the hot seven? It’s a reminder that you can’t let the day-to-day, or even week-to-week highs and lows get you too high or low on a player. This was all expected with Lake – nothing that’s happened should make you any more or less excited about his possibility of becoming a big league regular. He’s got a lot to learn, a lot of development ahead of him.

After seeing some natural pullback, Yasiel Puig has gotten hot again in his last eight games, hitting .367/.472/.633. That actually isn’t that much better than his season line … he has been good. I never really cared for the Puig/Lake comparison for so many reasons, and I’m not going to perpetuate it here. They aren’t similar players, and they don’t come with similar expectations. Puig was signed for $42 million last year. Lake was expected to still be developing at AAA right now. If Lake emerges as a productive regular or quality utility player, that’s a win. If that happens to Puig, everyone will be disappointed.

Series She-View

The Series She-View is one beautiful woman representing the Cubs taking on another (usually) beautiful woman representing the opponent. The Cubs’ representative will change as the team’s needs change – in other words, if the Cubs are winning, the rep will stay the same. But if the Cubs’ performance calls for a change, someone new will step in. The opponent’s representative will change from series to series, at my whim. But at least she’ll probably be wearing the opponent’s colors or have some connection to the team or something like that. It is immature, and the connection to baseball is tenuous at best. These things, I know.

Caption the Enemy

A new feature for the Series Preview this year – since folks on the Internet can’t get enough of cracking wise about pictures, I thought it might be a fun addition to the Series Preview. I’ll drop in a picture (hopefully one ripe for captioning), and you’ll drop in your clever captions into the comments. Then, if there are good ones, we can meme-ify them for use down the road.

Today’s image is the successful Chicago man, relocated to the West Coast. He’s been maligned by some, but, with a financial assist, his team is playing incredibly well. It’s Ned Colletti, and he’s got a hell of a mustache:

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